If there’s one word that describes Japan, it would be 平和 heiwa, meaning peace. Japan is the most peaceful country in the world, with the same number of murders as the state of New Jersey, and if you lose your wallet even in the mass confusion of this year’s Shibuya Halloween party riot, you’ll probably get it back with all cards and money still inside. Another sign of Japan’s amazing peacefulness is Yuru-chara (“laid-back characters”), which are stuffed costume characters that represent the various regions of Japan, promoting tourism and local products like sake and tofu to everyone in a fun way.
Yuru-chara are quite a phenomenon, exploding in popularity about a decade ago as the first national competition caught everyone’s attention, and Japan’s various cities and towns vied to create the cutest character and promote themselves. As Japanese are wont to do, some fans go overboard, obsessively collecting plush toys and local products featuring the characters they love.
None other than John Oliver has reported on Yuru-chara, and he managed to get the details correct!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_9EDUvkgio
Although the giant character suits are expensive for each region of Japan to design and maintain, the total economic benefit of the characters is estimated at over $100 million, which is a lot when you’re talking about areas of the country where money doesn’t flow as freely as in major cities.
Yuru-chara Grand Prix 2018
This weekend saw the most recent Yuru-chara Grand Prix in Higashi-Osaka, a huge event in which everyone votes for their favorite characters. Let’s look at the results!
The winner this year was Kaparu, from Shiki, a city in Saitama Prefecture north of Tokyo. Based on a kappa, a magical creature that’s said to live in swamps, he promotes the city’s industry and sports. Interestingly, or perhaps not, there’s an urban legend that these kappa creates are related to Frances Xavier, the Jesuit priest who brought Christianity to Japan.
Second place in the Yuru-chara Grand Prix this year went to Omuta Jabo, a strange snake-like creature that promotes a large summer festival in the city of Omuta, in Kyushu.
Finally, there’s Konyudo-kun, who promotes the local products of Yokkichi in Mie prefecture. Very cute.
Other Major Yuru-chara
While there are hundreds of these Yuru-chara characters from all corners of Japan, I thought I’d introduce some of the most well-known of the characters.
One of the most famous is Funassyi, an unofficial character created to promote the city of Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture. The character has four idol CDs published, plus an anime and live-action drama. Funassyi is neither a boy nor a girl but a pear fairy. Made famous on the Internet by this gif.
Another major Yuru-chara is Kumamon, who promotes the local products of Kumamoto, in Japan’s southernmost island of Kyushu. He was very helpful in winning donations from all around the country after the terrible Kumamoto Earthquake of 2016.
This is Domo-kun, who you probably know. He promotes NHK, Japan’s public broadcasting system.
Some of these characters can get quite silly. This is E-Tax-kun, who promotes the Japanese tax office’s electronic tax filing system. Imagine the poor low-level tax office employee they tasked with wearing this suit, the poor guy.
Of course, the best Yuru-chara is also the first: Gunma-chan, the mascot for J-List’s home prefecture. Created in 1983 to promote prefectural government initiatives, Gunma-chan has risen in popularity and was voted the most popular character in the 2014 Yuru-chara Grand Prix.
Finally, the new-ish official mascot of Isesaki, J-List’s home city, Kuwamaru. I think he’s a silkworm or something since he often promotes tourism to the Tomioka Silk Mill, a large-scale silk factory established in 1872 and now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Yuru-chara Summary
Isn’t it great that in a world of trade wars and real wars, famine and opioid addiction crises, there’s a magical place where all people think about which cute character they want to support in the upcoming national election? Japan is the goal for us all.
Which Yuru-chara do you think is cute? Tell us on Twitter!
